[opensuse] please comment on Q-Cad vs. AutoCAD LT
The subject says it all--almost. Are the commands the same? Which are not supported? --doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 02/18/2010 02:54 AM, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
The subject says it all--almost. Are the commands the same? Which are not supported? --doug
Not exactly, but both provide both a point-n-click and command line tool selection. (Not exactly because while they provide 90% of the same drawing element capabilities, they do have difference is how objects are made like 'arcs'. There isn't a one-to-one for each of the 'radius-angle' or 'three-point' if I recall correctly. The logic in QCad is likewise very similar to AutoCadLT (which has the same command interface as its big brother). I don't want to say 'exact', because it has been at least 10 years since I used AutoCad. I do use QCad and it is a true Cad program. The interface will leave many scratching their heads saying WTF, because like any true CAD program it isn't 'page' (sheet of paper) based, but instead works (or should be worked with) in 'true size' where the drawing environment is set by the user to be in actual size (whether in Angstrom or Astrological Units). For printed output a simple scale factor is applied to produce a drawing on any size paper. (all of your packages print this way, but in many Cad programs, given the varying size and diversity of possible units, this is normally left to the user) Both AutoCad and QCad provide support for Lisp programming language for object definition, automation, whatever you want to script related to drawing objects. Why are you asking? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
David C. Rankin skrev:
On 02/18/2010 02:54 AM, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
The subject says it all--almost. Are the commands the same? Which are not supported? --doug
Not exactly, but both provide both a point-n-click and command line tool selection. (Not exactly because while they provide 90% of the same drawing element capabilities, they do have difference is how objects are made like 'arcs'. There isn't a one-to-one for each of the 'radius-angle' or 'three-point' if I recall correctly.
The logic in QCad is likewise very similar to AutoCadLT (which has the same command interface as its big brother). I don't want to say 'exact', because it has been at least 10 years since I used AutoCad. I do use QCad and it is a true Cad program.
The interface will leave many scratching their heads saying WTF, because like any true CAD program it isn't 'page' (sheet of paper) based, but instead works (or should be worked with) in 'true size' where the drawing environment is set by the user to be in actual size (whether in Angstrom or Astrological Units). For printed output a simple scale factor is applied to produce a drawing on any size paper. (all of your packages print this way, but in many Cad programs, given the varying size and diversity of possible units, this is normally left to the user)
Both AutoCad and QCad provide support for Lisp programming language for object definition, automation, whatever you want to script related to drawing objects.
Why are you asking?
I've setup a few QCADs over time. My experience is this...if the user is NOT familiar with AutoCad, they'll do just fine (in 2D that is). - if they expect AutoCad albeit without the pricetag, they'll not do fine... I have a few systems in heavy industrial use, they are performing fine. -- ------------------------------ Med venlig hilsen/Best regards Verner Kjærsgaard Open Source Academy +45 56964223 Novell Certified Linux Professional 10035701 Linux Counter no 114954 ------------------------------ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 18 February 2010 12:25:33 am David C. Rankin wrote:
On 02/18/2010 02:54 AM, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
The subject says it all--almost. Are the commands the same? Which are not supported? --doug
Not exactly, but both provide both a point-n-click and command line tool selection. (Not exactly because while they provide 90% of the same drawing element capabilities, they do have difference is how objects are made like 'arcs'. There isn't a one-to-one for each of the 'radius-angle' or 'three-point' if I recall correctly.
The logic in QCad is likewise very similar to AutoCadLT (which has the same command interface as its big brother). I don't want to say 'exact', because it has been at least 10 years since I used AutoCad. I do use QCad and it is a true Cad program.
The interface will leave many scratching their heads saying WTF, because like any true CAD program it isn't 'page' (sheet of paper) based, but instead works (or should be worked with) in 'true size' where the drawing environment is set by the user to be in actual size (whether in Angstrom or Astrological Units). For printed output a simple scale factor is applied to produce a drawing on any size paper. (all of your packages print this way, but in many Cad programs, given the varying size and diversity of possible units, this is normally left to the user)
Both AutoCad and QCad provide support for Lisp programming language for object definition, automation, whatever you want to script related to drawing objects.
Why are you asking?
I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone. Thanx to you and the other fellow who answered your input. --doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Douglas McGarrett wrote:
I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
For drawing diagrams there are better alternatives than a CAD program. You might look at dia for example, which has a range of symbol sets available. Cheers, Dave -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 18 February 2010 10:38:51 am Dave Howorth wrote:
Douglas McGarrett wrote:
I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
For drawing diagrams there are better alternatives than a CAD program. You might look at dia for example, which has a range of symbol sets available.
Cheers, Dave
Will do! Thanx--doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Douglas McGarrett
I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
I'm not experienced in that, but I tried once gEDA system to draw schematics and more. Worked OK on OpenSUSE. I think it is in "science" repository. Regards -- Mark Goldstein -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 02/18/2010 11:54 AM, Mark Goldstein wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Douglas McGarrett
wrote: I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
I'm not experienced in that, but I tried once gEDA system to draw schematics and more. Worked OK on OpenSUSE. I think it is in "science" repository.
gEDA is a bit hard to get into; I recently switched to kicad, which is working more smoothly for me. Why on earth would anyone want to use a general-purpose drawing program like dia, or a mechanical drawing program like Autocad or Qcad, for electronics? At home and for consulting I use kicad for electronics and Qcad for mechanical drawing, and oodraw or dia for things like block diagrams or flowcharts. The times are gone when you're forced to go to the Evil Empire for any but the most advanced or specialized cad, or (as I am forced to) when your employer or client requires one of the Windows systems. John Perry -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 18 February 2010 01:32:53 pm John E. Perry wrote:
On 02/18/2010 11:54 AM, Mark Goldstein wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Douglas McGarrett
wrote: I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
I'm not experienced in that, but I tried once gEDA system to draw schematics and more. Worked OK on OpenSUSE. I think it is in "science" repository.
gEDA is a bit hard to get into; I recently switched to kicad, which is working more smoothly for me.
Why on earth would anyone want to use a general-purpose drawing program like dia, or a mechanical drawing program like Autocad or Qcad, for electronics? At home and for consulting I use kicad for electronics and Qcad for mechanical drawing, and oodraw or dia for things like block diagrams or flowcharts.
The times are gone when you're forced to go to the Evil Empire for any but the most advanced or specialized cad, or (as I am forced to) when your employer or client requires one of the Windows systems.
John Perry
To give you a simple answer, I used AutoCAD Lt at work for about 15 years, and I'm used to it. Once you have built a few items, like IC's, transistors, etc., you can use them again and again. It makes nice square boxes for block diagrams, and the ortho mode makes nice square-cornered lines on schematics. It's nice for circuit-board traces, with its programmable line widths, and it makes nice microwave circuits with the pline command, as well as making large microwave objects and filling them in with solid. You say you need three programs to do all that. --doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 02/18/2010 10:49 PM, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
On Thursday 18 February 2010 01:32:53 pm John E. Perry wrote:
Why on earth would anyone want to use a general-purpose drawing program like dia, or a mechanical drawing program like Autocad or Qcad, for electronics? At home and for consulting I use kicad for electronics and Qcad for mechanical drawing, and oodraw or dia for things like block diagrams or flowcharts.
To give you a simple answer, I used AutoCAD Lt at work for about 15 years, and I'm used to it. Once you have built a few items, like IC's, transistors, etc., you can use them again and again. It makes nice square boxes for block diagrams, and the ortho mode makes nice square-cornered lines on schematics. It's nice for circuit-board traces, with its programmable line widths, and it makes nice microwave circuits with the pline command, as well as making large microwave objects and filling them in with solid.
And, of course, in kicad you can build your own IC's, etc. and reuse them, too. But with an electronic cad program, you get persistent connection (i. e., you can move items without losing connections), automatic connections between layers, autorouting if you like it, design rule checking, connectivity checking, consistency checking between schematic and board, etc., etc. Autocad gives some crippled mimics of these features with expensive add-ons but I've found it much harder to use (I work part-time for an employer who insists on Autocad).
You say you need three programs to do all that.
Nope. I make it easy on myself by using three appropriate tools for the job. kicad (or Eagle, or geda) makes electronic design easy. Qcad (or Autocad) makes mechanical drawing easy. dia (or inkscape) makes general artwork easy. Using kicad for either of the other two is probably possible, but would tough. Using Qcad (or Autocad) for either of the other two would definitely be possible, but would be tough. Using dia (or inkscape) would be possible, but would be tough. I use the appropriate free package for the job, and save myself a lot of grief. jp -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
"On 01:32:53 pm "John E. Perry"
On 02/18/2010 11:54 AM, Mark Goldstein wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Douglas McGarrett
wrote: I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
I'm not experienced in that, but I tried once gEDA system to draw schematics and more. Worked OK on OpenSUSE. I think it is in "science" repository.
gEDA is a bit hard to get into; I recently switched to kicad, which is working more smoothly for me.
Why on earth would anyone want to use a general-purpose drawing program like dia, or a mechanical drawing program like Autocad or Qcad, for electronics? At home and for consulting I use kicad for electronics and Qcad for mechanical drawing, and oodraw or dia for things like block diagrams or flowcharts.
The times are gone when you're forced to go to the Evil Empire for any but the most advanced or specialized cad, or (as I am forced to) when your employer or client requires one of the Windows systems.
John Perry
Is there a kicad package available for suse? Tnx, Mike. -- 2.6.27.39-0.2-default GNU/Linux -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 02/21/2010 05:03 PM, ka1ifq wrote:
"On 01:32:53 pm "John E. Perry"
said" I recently switched to kicad, which is working more smoothly for me.
John Perry
Is there a kicad package available for suse?
yast->Software Management->{click "Search"tab}->{type kicad} The Technical Data" tab says it's in the build service repository, so you'll have to enable that. Or webpin may give you a single-click install option. jp -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 02/22/2010 11:51 AM, John E. Perry wrote:
On 02/21/2010 05:03 PM, ka1ifq wrote:
Is there a kicad package available for suse?
yast->Software Management->{click "Search"tab}->{type kicad}
The Technical Data" tab says it's in the build service repository, so you'll have to enable that.
Or webpin may give you a single-click install option.
Just to be sure I'd done it right, I just looked at http://benjiweber.co.uk:8080/webpin/ and found 1-click installs for kicad, kicad-doc, and kicad-library. You know, I thought webpin was a _suse_ service! Thanks, Benji Weber, for this fantastic tool.
jp
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 18 February 2010 11:54:38 am Mark Goldstein wrote:
On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 10:06 PM, Douglas McGarrett
wrote: I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
I'm not experienced in that, but I tried once gEDA system to draw schematics and more. Worked OK on OpenSUSE. I think it is in "science" repository.
Regards -- Mark Goldstein Thanx, Mark. --doug
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 02/18/2010 02:06 PM, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
On Thursday 18 February 2010 12:25:33 am David C. Rankin wrote:
On 02/18/2010 02:54 AM, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
The subject says it all--almost. Are the commands the same? Which are not supported? --doug
Not exactly, but both provide both a point-n-click and command line tool selection. (Not exactly because while they provide 90% of the same drawing element capabilities, they do have difference is how objects are made like 'arcs'. There isn't a one-to-one for each of the 'radius-angle' or 'three-point' if I recall correctly.
The logic in QCad is likewise very similar to AutoCadLT (which has the same command interface as its big brother). I don't want to say 'exact', because it has been at least 10 years since I used AutoCad. I do use QCad and it is a true Cad program.
The interface will leave many scratching their heads saying WTF, because like any true CAD program it isn't 'page' (sheet of paper) based, but instead works (or should be worked with) in 'true size' where the drawing environment is set by the user to be in actual size (whether in Angstrom or Astrological Units). For printed output a simple scale factor is applied to produce a drawing on any size paper. (all of your packages print this way, but in many Cad programs, given the varying size and diversity of possible units, this is normally left to the user)
Both AutoCad and QCad provide support for Lisp programming language for object definition, automation, whatever you want to script related to drawing objects.
Why are you asking?
I am a retired engineer, and an Amateur Radio Operator, and there are times when I would like to draw a schematic or a block diagram for various purposes. including publication .Perhaps I will be better off in Windows--there seem to be a lot more choices there. ProgeCAD seems to be a good ACLt clone.
Thanx to you and the other fellow who answered your input.
--doug
Doug, There are a couple of packages that you should look at. Inkscape is a wonderful technical illustration package (it's only drawback is dimensioning). I and others have opened tickets with inkscape to add this capability). I too am and engineer and often need these capabilities. Recently my brother (a civil engineer) and I were working on drawings for a barn on a farm we have in McKinney (22 miles north of Dallas for the curious). He has the full AutoCad setup and I was using only Linux tools on my end. We used QCad and we used InkScape with it's export capabilities, and one or two more I will have to look for. Bottom line, we had no problems moving drawings back and forth between AutoCad and the Linux Tools. Looking back at the 'barn' directory, it looks like we were using QCad and InkScape exclusively. I would do the expanded 'detailed' illustrations in InkScape and we would print via pdf. Here is a simple sample: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/ss/apps/door-framing-enlarged.pdf -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (7)
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Dave Howorth
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David C. Rankin
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Douglas McGarrett
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John E. Perry
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ka1ifq
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Mark Goldstein
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Verner Kjærsgaard